WINTER PUPAE for breeding in the following season

Apart from booked orders, we are not expecting further supplies of gorganus pupae in autumn 2017. Summer pupae can be ordered as a different item on the WWB website, for supply from July, and winter pupae can be ordered here for supply from November 2018.

Good stock of very healthy and large Swallowtail pupae from several parts of Europe.

Store the pupae cool for the winter. Lay in the emerging cage in late April for emergence to start in May.

Most years they are most difficult to obtain.

The larvae are very easy to rear on Fennel, Carrot leaves and Parsnip leaves and flowers (wild and cultivated). One of the most attractive butterfly larvae and a joy to rear!

The Tiger Swallowtail is perhaps North America’s grandest swallowtail. As a curiosity, a small proportion of females emerge as melanics, not as beautiful as the typical female, but different! They can be bred in captivity and the larvae are as exotic as many of the tropical swallowtails, with the Papilio eye markings and bird dropping camouflage in the early instars.

Try feeding them on Cherry or Lime, and they will probably take a wider variety of foodplants.

A large swallowtail from the Eastern parts of North America. The larvae, which have wonderful enlarged eye markings, feed on Spicebush Lindera benzoin and Sassafras Sassafras albidum, Camphor Cinnamomum camphora, and Redbay Persea borbonia, perhaps prickly ash Zanthoxylum americanum. In Europe they are bred on Tulip Tree Liriodendron and Sweetbay Magnolia virginiana.Butterflies are produced this year. There are two generations.

On the back of the thorax on the pupa, there is a curious pattern in the exact image of a butterfly, even with curly antennae!

Store the pupae in a cool place, even a refrigerator, loose in a plastic box. An early spring butterfly. Depending on locality and season, the butterflies usually begin to fly in May. The male has the orange tips. Both sexes have mottled undersides in green which is actually made of microscopic scales of black and yellow, giving the illusion of green. The curious pupae look like thorns.

Eggs are laid on Garlic Mustard, Sweet Rocket and Cuckoo Flower or Lady’s Smock. The larvae live singly and are canabalistic. Not difficult to breed, particularly on potted foodplant. Camouflage in all stages is remarkable.

A charming and quite small Vanessid butterfly that occurs throughout much of Europe but not in the British Isles. It has been established in Britain but the colony was deliberately destroyed. This is a nettle feeder.

The eggs are laid in unique pendant strings from the underside of a nettle leaf.Younger larvae are gregarious.

There are normally two broods: the spring brood is patterned rather like a fritillary, as illustrated. In July the second brood (form porosa) emerges looking like miniature White Admirals!

Pairing is not easy but success is more likely if you can create a netting sleeve that brings the two sexes together, like the peak of a hood.Second brood larvae hang up to pupate in secluded places for the winter. The pupae we are offering now are to be stored in a cool outhouse or fridge until April. Then lay them out for emergence in April/May.

Very seldom available. Only a bit larger than Cupido minimus, the Small Blue, this butterfly is found mostly on warm hillsides and mountains in southern Europe. Places where its foodplant Sedum telephium is found.Larvae have also been reared on garden varieties of Sedum, the Ice Plant.

There can be two broods in warmer locations. Winter is spent in the pupal stage. You can keep the pupae in a fridge through the winter and bring them out to emerge in spring.

Pupae are stored cool for the winter. Lay them out in April for May emergence. Pairings extremely easy. Larvae feed on Apple, Willows and Sallows. The larvae do best on living foodplant because these plants do not last well in water. Very attractive larvae, highly camouflaged with silvery markings on green, and very streamlined. Single brooded. The moth has beautiful hindwings which it flashes if disturbed. Huge eyespots brightly coloured with magenta and blue. Highly recommended.

The moth has a curious resting position, with hindwings projecting in front of the forewings. Patterned in shades of grey, this large Hawkmoth escapes detection because of its curious shape. Two broods are produced in May and July/August. The larvae are very robust, bright green, with stripes and sometimes red spots. Sleeved larvae do best, on Poplars, Willows and Sallows.

Store the pupae cool until a month before the moths emerge in spring and summer. Pairings and laying are easily achieved. The larvae thrive sleeved on Lime or Elm. They pupate underground and emerge the following spring. Single brooded.